Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Small Gods
Ah 1992 strange year – economic crashes, redundancies arising, conservative government conned its way to an election and in America the Republicans faced the end of power. So much has changed... I would have been 16 finished GCSEs and thinking about Sixth Form – not really sure what I’m doing at this point but have a great bunch of friends and the music is improving quickly so there is that.
My Copy
Publisher Corgi
Price - £4.99
In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was: "Hey, you!"
For Brutha the novice is the Chosen One. He wants peace and justice and brotherly love.
He also wants the Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please...
By my befuddled memory by this point I’d caught up Discworld wise and was now in the lovely position of awaiting new books every six months (Pratchett was pulling two a year at this point amazingly). Small Gods felt different - its chunky for starters but also very quickly it felt a very different type of story – less fun and more a point to prove. Returning back to my theme that we are now in the second main era of Discworld this is for me is clearly the best Discworld novel in the sequence to date and I think has a huge claim to being the best there was (clearly the re-read will settle this). Here Pratchett creates unique tale of gods, religions and humanity that I think will be a classic for a long time to come.
Omnia is a fiercely religious country ruled by the Church and in particular the Quisition and its famed leader Vorbis. On the back of a defeat via neighbouring Ephebe times look hard and yet the Church’s real leader Vorbis plans next steps cunningly. In the gardens though the young harmless Novice Brutha hears a tortoise speak to him…a tortoise that claims to be the great god Om. Om knows he needs Brutha to help him and also not discover exactly why the almighty is in his garden and not ruling the world as he’s been led to begin.
I’ll lay cards on the table upfront I think this novel is absolute genius. Pratchett separates God from religion and highlights how humanity is often behind both. The fun bit is the main argument is the world is on the back of a turle and nor round which is deliciously meta too. The tone of the novel though is ferocious very quickly with jokes that have sharp teeth to highlight that Omnia is a terrible place to live. The people live in fear of the Quisition and we see torture and capital punishment are daily events for often the most minor of transgressions. The masterstroke is we then find this amazingly devout country therefore doesn’t actually believe in the God Om before just the structure (or as Pratchett identified the shell) of the Church that holds everyone’s lives to the fire. A fundamentalist almost atheist country that has learnt cruelty and no compassion. It’s a terrifying concept – neatly set up in the amazing villain that is Vorbis.
Reading this time, I’m struck that Pratchett’s villains are all people who have a resolute idea of what reality should be. Proper Government in Guards! Guards! Correct rulership in Wyrd Sissters – Pratchett isn’t afraid of those who just want to be evil it is those who want the world as they see it whatever the cost. Vorbis is absolutely terrifying doing evil things not out of malice but just to see what happens be it torture or turning a tortoise upside down. The really chilling aspect is makes everyone do bad things too. There is no warmth here - all of us serve him and nothing else is important. You can see he’s often miles ahead of the rest of the cast almost Patrician like but without the purpose of doing things for everyone else. The joy of the novel is he feels he could win we know often people like him indeed do win and as it’s remarked later in the story they leave echoes for years after their death dominating how people behave.
And now we’ve explored the dark lets look at the lighter side of the book where Pratchett finds hope. I love the complexity of the relationship between Om and Brutha. As we see Discworld Gods are inherently all too human and selfish seeing their followers as batteries but Om now being solely reliant on Brutha makes them actually have to talk to each other and listen. Brutha gets his blinkers on the power of the gods removed and Om actually learns people are important. It’s a wonderful subtle transition in attitudes made more apprarent when Brutha leaves Omnia and sees their other ways to look at the world than through one scripture. Om however, learns about being the best of humanity and Brutha learns humans need to be better. A key plot point is the way the final third of the book looks at war (which Pratchett returns to in Jingo) this could in other novels have been the revolution that’s sees the end of the Church. Instead Brutha calmly stands up to armies and even his own God to find a better way – one that makes the Gods have to work to earn their follower’s respect and share beliefs.
We also see the dawning of technology appearing with steam technology playing a small but key role in the plot. Here its science versus religion but I liked that Pratchett shows technology isn’t alone a road to logical perfection either. As the inventor Urn is horrified to find out his latest invention is to be used on his own countrymen. That idea of how technology affects the world is going to be mined a lot more in the coming books but I find it clearly picks Pratchett’s interest here.
Overall a book I think everyone can read. It has got the sharpest satire to date but also some wonderful thoughts on humanity and why we believe in the fantastical. It shows humanity as both its own angels and demons and does it with a smile. A book I continually think about as we move through so many interesting times.
